UM's Kent Johnson leads Canada into gold-medal game against Finland

Edmonton, Alberta — Goaltender Dylan Garand made 31 saves, University of Michigan forward Kent Johnson had a goal and two assists and Canada beat the Czech Republic 5-2 on Friday to advance to the world junior hockey championship game.

Canada will face Finland on Saturday night after Finland blanked Sweden 1-0.

Logan Stankoven added a goal and an assist to help Canada improve to 6-0. Connor Bedard, Mason McTavish and Joshua Roy also scored.

On McTavish's tournament-leading eighth goal and 15th point, Johnson faked a shot on the power play and passed the puck to McTavish for a one-timer.

"I just wound up the slapshot and was kind of thinking about it, but I saw McTavish there and obviously was happy he hammered it home," said Johnson, a first-round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets. "He doesn't really miss many of those."

Red Wings draft pick Donovan Sebrango was plus-1 in 20:53 of ice time. 

Jan Mysak and David Jiricek scored for the Czech Republic. Tomas Suchanek made 22 saves in the first two periods, and Pavel Cajan stopped eight shots in the third.

In Finland's victory, Kasper Puutio broke a scoreless tie in the second period and backup goalie Juha Jatkola stopped 23 shots.

Wings prospects Eemil Viro was scoreless in 20:15 of ice time for the Finns.

Detroit had three draft picks in Sweden's lineup: Simon Edvinsson (22:43), William Wallinder (17:23) and Theodor Niederbach (17:33, one shot).